The Software Testing Wheel – Idexcel Testing Roundup

1. The Software Testing Wheel

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We made a software testing wheel to answer these questions based on the ISO standard for software product quality. It concludes that the quality of a software product is the weighted sum of different quality attributes which are grouped up into several quality factors. For example, performance efficiency is a factor that is composed of time behavior, capacity, resource consumption, etc. [Continue Reading…]

2. Top 13 Tips for Writing Effective Test Cases for Any Application

Test cases are very important for any project as this is the first step in any testing cycle, and if anything goes wrong at this step, the impacts get extrapolated as you move forward in the software testing life-cycle.

Knowing how to write good test cases is extremely important for you as a testing resource and believe you me, it doesn’t take too much of your effort and time!

You just need to follow certain guidelines while writing test cases or as they call it – follow “test case writing best practices.”

In this article, I am going to talk about some simple yet effective tips which you could use for writing effective test cases. [Continue Reading…]

3. Software Testing is Monotonous… Oh Really?

Sunny afternoon, an IT company, two testers at the vending machine –

Tester 1: This job sucks. For a whole day, I keep executing the same test cases that I did yesterday and still most of them are failing. The product manager is not happy with me because test cases are failing and I am clueless about what to do.

Tester 2: I agree. I am facing same problem too. I do not find anything new to do. I am expected to write test cases every day and whenever I present new ideas, they get rejected with different excuses.

Tester 1: I am searching for a new job, which would give me an opportunity to grow and explore… … …. [Continue Reading…]

4. What Flaky Tests Can Tell You

Imagine this: You are a programming tester who creates automated end-to-end tests for a web application. You use good, modern technology—say, Selenium WebDriver. You consider code a thing of craft, using page objects to separate the tests from application logic. You make use of virtualization and use adequately powered machine hardware. You also understand how end-to-end automation is a team effort, so you work with application developers, testers, and managers in concert to get the most value out of your work. And yet for all your good work, you still have a recurring problem: flaky tests.

These are tests that pass or fail unexpectedly for reasons that appear random. Flaky tests become even worse as test suites grow and more areas of an application are covered. Eventually there comes a temptation to throw up your hands, yell, “This is stupid!” and throw the whole end-to-end test suite into the trash bin.

But are flaky tests really a problem? [Continue Reading…]

5. Discussion: How to differentiate myself from other Testers in the team?

I am responsible for testing an enterprise web application, what other things of high value can a tester do to stand out of the crowd. Apart from obvious activities like test data creation, test case execution, bug reports…what other initiatives can a QA engineer , take which will help raise his value to the project/Client.

This might seems like a subjective question, but i need valuable advice..that i will definitely try out in my project and see if its bringing more value and making me more productive. [Share your suggestions here!]